The Magical, Mystery Cure

Last week, I read A Christmas Carol, and it struck me that Tiny Tim might have had hemophilia. Maybe I am inferring too much but—since it is Christmas— I am also reminded of a passage from the Bible, and a reference to another bleeding disorder. While most people are familiar with A Christmas Carol and Tiny Tim’s predicament, many are not familiar with this passage in the Bible. It happens in Gospel scripture when Jesus was healing the sick, and even raising the dead back to life. A crowd followed him, and one woman dared to reach out to him. She had been bleeding for 12 years. She had been to doctors and healers but no one could help her. She was considered “unclean,” and was shunned. This is why perhaps she approached Jesus from behind, and believed that if she could just touch even the hem of his garment, she would be healed.

Read this and see what you think (Matthew 9:20-22 NIV):

20Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. 21She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”

22Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.

What disease or blood disorder could cause her to bleed for 12 years? That she was considered unclean makes us believe she bled from her uterus. Maybe it was fibroids, or maybe, just maybe, she had von Willebrand disease. Perhaps this is the first known recording of someone with VWD… and someone being cured of it.

The famous blues singer Sam Cooke even wrote a song about it, called “Touch the Hem of His Garment.”

Christmas is a time to reflect on faith, miracles and hope. Even to us nowadays, gene therapy will be like a miracle, to heal those with chronic bleeding.

Whoa, there was a woman in the Bible days
She had been sick, sick so very long
But she heard ’bout Jesus was passin’ by
So she joined the gathering throng

And while she was pushing her way through
Someone asked her, what are you trying to do?
She said, if I could just touch the hem of his garment
I know I’ll be made whole

She cried oh, Lord (oh, Lord), and whoa, Lord (oh, Lord)
And oh, oh Lord, and whoa, Lord (Oh, Lord)
Said, if I could just touch the hem of his garment
I know I’ll be made whole

And whoa, she spent her money here and there
Until she had no, had no more to spare
The doctors, they’d done all they could
But their medicine would do no good

She stood there cryin’, oh (oh, Lord) oh (oh, Lord)
And oh, oh Lord, and whoa, Lord (oh, Lord)
Said, if I could just touch the hem of his garment
I know I’ll be made whole right now.

When she touched him, the savior didn’t see
But still he turned around and cried, somebody touched me
She said, it was I who just wanna touch the hem of your garment
I know I’ll be made whole right now